MBA401: Analyzing Leadership in Volkswagen Emission Scandal Crisis

This presentation delves into the organizational crisis faced by Volkswagen due to the emissions scandal, highlighting the causes, consequences, and the role of leadership styles in managing the crisis. It examines the impact of the scandal on Volkswagen and other organizations, emphasizing the disadvantages of autocratic leadership in such situations. The presentation concludes with recommendations for Volkswagen, including the development of open communication channels and the adoption of effective leadership practices to ensure transparency and prevent future crises. The analysis draws upon various research articles and case studies to support its findings and recommendations.

Introduction
• The power point presentation will bring about the
discussion on the concepts of organisational crisis
affecting the performance of the organisation.
• Organisational crisis of “The Volkswagen emissions
scandal”.

The Volkswagen emissions Scandal
• The organisational crisis of the company Volkswagen
has been reported in the year 2015. The US
environment protection agency (EPA) announced that
the company has been cheating with the diesel
emission tests (Clemente and Gabbioneta, 2017).

• To mention the emission scandal cause, it has been
found that the scandal occurred due to the factor of
corporate social irresponsibility in the organisation
Volkswagen (Irwin, 2018).
• Volkswagen described their engines as clean and
cleaner than the US and Californian requirements, but
reality was different (Svedin, 2016).

Consequences of emission scandal
• To mention about the consequence of the crisis, it
has been analysed that scandal led to various
damages to the Volkswagen, impacting their overall
performance in the future (Roshan, Warren and Carr,
2016).

Other consequences
• VW’s emission scandals consequences were
not only confined to the company itself, there
were some negative impacts on other
organisations (Piazza and Jourdan, 2018).

Efficient Leadership
• It has been observed through a study on
organisational crisis, that leaders and the concepts of
leadership is crucial to the every type of issue in the
organisation.
• It has been found through the research that leaders has
crucial role in eliminating the negative consequences
of organisational crisis (Amankwah-Amoah, 2016) .

Disadvantages of leadership
• It has been analysed from the situation of
organisational crisis in Volkswagen, that autocratic
leadership has some of the disadvantages (Khan et al.,
2015).
• Autocratic leadership has not been found very
effective in the attainment of the organisational goals
and objectives. It creates or occurs due to the issue of
lack of trust amongst organisational members.

Conclusion
• To conclude the discussion from the preceding slides,
it has been understood that organisational crisis leads
to a major impact on the growth and performance of
organisation. The organisational crisis of Volkswagen
has impacted their performance as well as the other’s
companies also affected. Hence, they must practice
effective leadership and improve their functioning.

Recommendations
• The company Volkswagen must develop open and
effective communication mediums or channels to
ensure transparency and settlement of any other
issues.
• A combination of the aspects are included in the
recommendations for the company as they should
practice effective form of leadership.

References
• Amankwah-Amoah, J. (2016) An integrative process model of organisational failure. Journal of Business
Research, 69(9), pp. 3388-3397.
• Clemente, M. and Gabbioneta, C. (2017) How does the media frame corporate scandals? The case of
German newspapers and the Volkswagen diesel scandal. Journal of Management Inquiry, 26(3), pp. 287-302.
• Irwin, M. (2018) Case Study: Volkswagen's Diesel Emissions Control Scandal. Journal of Strategic
Innovation and Sustainability Vol, 13(1), p.53.
• Jung, J.C. and “Alison” Park, S.B. (2017) Case Study: Volkswagen's Diesel Emissions Scandal. Thunderbird
International Business Review, 59(1), pp. 127-137.
• Khan, M.S., Khan, I., Qureshi, Q.A., Ismail, H.M., Rauf, H., Latif, A. and Tahir, M. (2015) The styles of
leadership: A critical review. Public Policy and Administration Research, 5(3), pp. 87-92.
• Piazza, A. and Jourdan, J. (2018) When the Dust Settles: The Consequences of Scandals for Organizational
Competition. Academy of Management Journal, 61(1), pp.165-190.
• Roshan, M., Warren, M. and Carr, R. (2016) Understanding the use of social media by organisations for crisis
communication. Computers in Human Behaviour, 63, pp. 350-361.
• Schnackenberg, A.K. and Tomlinson, E.C. (2016) Organizational transparency: A new perspective on
managing trust in organization-stakeholder relationships. Journal of Management, 42(7), pp. 1784-1810.
• Svedin, L.M. (2016) Organizational cooperation in crises. United Kingdom: Routledge.
• Valentini, C. and Kruckeberg, D. (2018) “Walking the environmental responsibility talk” in the automobile
industry: An ethics case study of the Volkswagen environmental scandal. Corporate Communications: An
International Journal, 23(4), pp. 528-543.